Life on the run in Tigard

A Tigard couple hopes that their ‘Reason to Run’ will bring locals into the jogging fold

By Stover E Harger III

The Times, Mar 5, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

FUN RUN – Trisha Swanson jogs behind her husband Darin down a path at Cook Park in Tigard, where the inaugural race of their newly created running league, “Reason to Run,” will be held. The couple plans to organize runs in Tigard, Tualatin and Beaverton.

Jaime Valdez / The Times

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For Trisha and Darin Swanson, running is a passion, an escape and a way of life.

They love the rushing wind blowing past their faces; the serene sounds of nature mixing with their heartbeats and deep breaths; the ability to think about all that life has to offer.

It’s a chance, they say, to get closer to God, to nature, to each other and to themselves.

And the Tigard couple wants to share these feelings and experiences with their neighbors by holding a series of community races, starting in town first, then expanding to other local cities. First off will be a 5k race and 10k race on April 11 that will start at Cook Park and travel into Tualatin and Durham before looping back.

They are holding this and two other planned events this year as part of their newly created running league, “Reason to Run.” Each race will give a portion of entry fees to different charities, taking what Darin calls an often “selfish activity,” and giving it a grander purpose.

Most people don’t want to go out and hit the road for psychological reasons — they think their body won’t be able to handle it or work has worn them down — but Darin and Trisha say that a little bit of support, and a common goal, goes a long way.

Just like it did for them when they first moved to Tigard.

Feet to the pavement

Darin and Trisha, both 38-years-old, moved here for work from Minneapolis six years ago.

Nowadays they compete in many races yearly, and run nearly every day, but at that time they were more inactive.

“We are not naturally gifted runners,” Darin said.

Then in individual, but similar stories, they found themselves thrust right into the Oregon running community.

Now they have become the teachers — bringing friends into their world of running bliss. Much of their lives now revolves around running, so much so that to outsiders it may seem like an obsession, Trisha said.

It’s close, but it’s not quite there yet, she said.

Still, they can see why they are perceived by many as “those running people.” But in the world of fixations, there are much worse options, Darin said.

“If you got to have a vice, I’ll take that one,” he said.

Finding the second wind

When Trisha was in High School she used to avoid running in gym by hiding, and right after college she started to notice she was gaining weight.

She began to offset her physically stagnant office job with jogging. Trisha started slow — running just a few blocks at a time — but slowly built up the distance and her abilities.

“It wasn’t fun for me for a long time,” she said.

By the time she moved to Tigard, she met up with a women’s running group and in no time she became immersed in it.

Similarly, Darin, a software engineer for Intel, never considered himself a runner until recently. When he came to Intel he met a man who introduced him to “ultra marathons,” which are races any distance longer than the usual 26-mile-long marathon length. Now years later, he has run in a number of marathons, running distances as long as 62 miles.

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